Somewhere inside of me common sense or something tells me Common Sense is related to Forces which tell us todo this and not That. I believe common sense happens when we do THAT.

The forces relate to my belief that most Americans own messed up , very messed up minds. This makes usmost of us act like Sheep. We buy what Adds -TV andPeers say we should buy, we believe what the mostfamous people tell us to believe = Maybe I am thinking of prejudices or biased views weacquire and the fact that this knowledge is what motivatesus to make most of our choices. Common sense is goingagainst these Demands or quasi demands that our education formal and informal dictate that we follow.

Ok, I confused myself. MAYBE I misunderstood the knowledge you shared with us thatconcludes older people have more common sense, generally speaking, then pre teens.

I have a story to tell from my childhood that will give you a better understanding of "common sense".

Once upon a Time wrote:I had a friend that was a very intelligent guy. He knew so much about all kinds of things and so easily retained and could recall it that I thought it was amazing. However, he was a little lacking in the common sense end of the spectrum. It just so happened that I was doing a little bit better on the common sense side and lacking on the book smarts. We hit it off and were a great team at most endeavors we took on.Our friendship grew and held fast to high school. He had a very nice stereo system in his car and one day at school someone broke out the back window of his car and stole his stereo system.I arrived at his house one day shortly after that and I found him installing a new stereo system in his car. This time he figured "out of sight, out of mind". A nice bit of common sense exercised there. He decided if people couldn't see the stereo system, they wouldn't think about stealing it. Not bad... and there he is cutting a hole in the bottom of his car because he wants to mount the stereo's equalizer in the console between the two front seats but the EQ was taller than the console was deep. After his explanation I looked at him, looked at the hole in the bottom of his car and asked... "Why didn't you just make some spacers to lift the console up some?"... he said "Where the hell were you two hours ago when I started this mess?"

If you don't understand something I said or why I said it... ask me.If you don't want to understand something I said or why I said it... tell me.

HELLO RYAN, not having much book smarts is a Mandatory requirementfor creation and use of common sense. If you are great as a mechanic = radio installing then when you lift the console it IS NOT common sense= it is a production of SKILLED knowledge in that area or art form..

The phrases common sense and sound judgment are, to me, closely related. That is why I said that it should get better with age, because with more experience our ability to judge a situation should - ideally - also improve. The ability to look at any situation, and use your life experience to determine the best possible way to proceed. Common sense is something you apply using simple sound logics.

If there is any given problem, any situation, there are a million possible ways to handle it. 1* Some may be completely illogical and obviously not lead to the desired outcome = No common sense at all.2* Some may make sense to an extent and produce a desired outcome, but in an unnecessarily complicated way (I think that is what Ryan tried to illustrate) = Some common sense3* Some can do the same, but in a more simple and more obvious way = Common sense

I have tried to simplify the descriptions above in order to, hopefully, create clarity. I am not sure if I haven't over-simplified it.

It seems that common sense is a power that harmonizes IQ, EI and Practical Intelligence.When these three are cooperating than there is a healthy power there. common sense. As less one has of these, s/he is ore out of balance, therefore having less of this power. Actually when all three are together building this driving force, one is really powerful.

there is any given problem, any situation, there are a million possible ways to handle it

Thanks, I NEEDED this, I LOVE IT to save me from a lot of pain. For some reason a whole lot of people TELL me what to do or how to do it. I always say OK or YOU ARE RIGHT and then when I STILL do it my waythey accuse me of many faults. Al you do not listen. Al you said you would do itthe right way (meaning their way). Al no one likes you because you do not do things right or Al you Never listen to anyone, etc From now I will stop using OK to mean that I heard them =(they almost all concludethat OK means I agree with them and I AM going to do it Their way. My happiness is because from now on I will respond or acknowledge their Supervision of my life actions by quoting Sabina. Maybe, I should, also, Add = "But, my friend, I am still going to do it My way =but my Personality does not permit me to be so Mean or blunt as to tell them or imply that their way is Wrong. I wonder if GRATITUDE was a choice on the Patchwork list?

Alvino,Yes, for any given problem, any situation, there are a million possible ways to handle it, however, please keep in mind that I did say that they are not equal., in fact I pointed out 3 basic groups of approaches to a situation. Just because there are a million ways to handle something doesn't mean there are a million good ways - by 'good' I mean using common sense.

I was a little confused and rather fascinated that common sense seems to be something that needs to be defined... Could it be that the confusion comes from mixing up the phrases 'common sense' and 'common knowledge'?